


Stone

by starsystems



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-27
Updated: 2011-08-27
Packaged: 2017-10-23 03:06:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/245597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsystems/pseuds/starsystems
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He can't see. He can't breathe. He can't move.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stone

It's still Nimueh. It's still her, beautiful and proud, even if it looks like every single month between then and now has been as long as a year for her, the lines on her face masking the woman who once was. But the eyes are the same, still, piercing and the warmth in them is calculated, deliberate. It's Nimueh and Merlin didn't kill her after all. Somehow that makes him feel a little relieved.

"Hello," she says and smiles and Merlin can feel the hot flush of something travelling through him, brought by her voice, settling down in the back of his head like a headache. "Merlin," she says and sounds like she's calling for her lover and not her enemy.

Merlin steps forward, his shoulders tense, ready for anything. The cave is silent and cold around them, blue shadows on the walls glimmering and moving with the water below. Nimueh only smiles.

"I know this is a trap," Merlin says. "Arthur isn't here." He left him behind, led him in the wrong direction because now he is safe and out of the way. Nimueh can't touch him.

And she just smiles, smiles, smiles.

"Oh, Merlin. It doesn't matter," she finally says. "He's not everyone's world."

And Merlin doesn't really care. Maybe the trap was for him, maybe it was for the both of them. But Arthur isn't here. Arthur is safe.

"What are you trying to do?" he asks and now Nimueh laughs, amused, her voice tingling like a young girl's.

"Revenge," she says lightly and lifts her hand, slides her finger over Merlin's cheek, her fingernail scraping the skin lightly and suddenly Merlin realizes that he can't move. She steps closer and places a soft kiss on his lips and Merlin would shudder and pull away if he could. She tastes like something foreign, dark and spicy and her lips are softer than silk. "You robbed me of _years_ and now I'm going to do the same to you," she whispers into his ear before pulling away.

It takes only two words. She hisses them out, almost like a curse, and Merlin can feel something shifting around him. And then he can't see. He can't breathe. He can't move.

Panic strikes him then and he tries to struggle, tries to yell out a spell or a name or _anything_ , but he can't. He still hears Nimueh's laughter and his heart keeps beating, impossibly. The stone around him is black and unyielding.

"Sleep, Merlin," Nimueh whispers into his ears or straight into his mind - he isn't sure. "Dream your years away."

Merlin can feel the drowsiness coming even before she stops talking, but he fights it. He can't let her win, not like this. Not completely. "Arthur," he thinks wildly. "He'll never know what happened to me."

The sleep doesn't come.

Time slides by.

Somewhere along the way, too quickly, Merlin loses track of time. The darkness around him never changes and his senses feel dulled, withering from disuse. He could have been trapped for hours, for days, for months. He doesn't know. Nothing changes.

He thinks of Arthur, wonders how long he will keep looking for him. A day? A week? A month? He wonders how quickly he forgets. He can feel something snapping inside his chest.

Time moves away from him in skips and leaps.

He learns to stretch his senses further, through the stone surrounding him. Maybe it's out of necessity, out of the primal need to feel connected to _something_. He learns to hear and he even learns to see beyond the stone, beyond the cave and the forest around him. He can almost see Camelot. Almost.

The despair nearly overwhelms him then. He needs to see them again, needs to be certain that they are still there, safe and moving on without him. He stretches his senses further, until he feels somehow thinner inside his mind, and then he does see. He grasps for anything, anyone familiar.

It surprises him when the first person he recognizes is Morgana. He can feel her, her mind like the silvery threads of a spider's web, and he feels her gasping his name, eyes suddenly incredibly wide and terrified.

Then Gwen is there. Her gentle hands over Morgana, her warmth seeping into her and through her into Merlin. She makes him try even harder. "Arthur," he thinks and searches, but doesn't find.

"Arthur," Morgana whispers in her chamber. Merlin follows her through the hallways, her heart beating like a small bird's, fluttering and fragile. "Arthur!" she yells at him when she enters his chambers and now Merlin can see Arthur too. He looks severe, darker than before, but not older, so at least it hasn't been years since Merlin last saw him, not even if it feels like it. He struggles to attach himself to him, but he feels strangely slippery and vague.

Arthur looks up from a parchment on his desk and doesn't smile at her.

"Arthur, I saw him!" Morgana says and something flickers over Arthur's face.

"You were dreaming again," he says and turns his eyes away from her. "It was just a dream."

Morgana glares at him. "He's _trapped_ ," she says to Arthur, her voice strained and ready for a fight. "You know he wouldn't just leave. He wouldn't just leave _you_."

"Arthur," Merlin thinks, forcing everything into that one thought. He watches how Morgana gasps again and sways on her feet, almost falls before Gwen is there again, steadying her.

"I can feel him," Morgana says weakly when Arthur comes to her, looking worried and more like himself again. "I don't know how, but I can feel him and he's alive and he needs your help."

"It's sorcery," Arthur says, keeping his voice low. His eyes are wide but the closed off look in them has vanished now. Merlin can hear how Arthur's breath catches in his throat when he says the words and how Gwen goes completely still, her hands staying around Morgana's waist. "Can you--" Arthur starts and stops. "Can he--"

Merlin thinks about the forest and the cave and the stone and the cold. In Camelot, Morgana sobs and clings to Arthur, her fists curling into Arthur's red, soft jacket. "I know where he is," she finally says. Arthur embraces her then and Merlin pulls back, away from Camelot and his friends, back into the stone. He feels weaker, exhausted, but Arthur's warmth sticks to him and doesn't fade.

Next time Merlin reaches out, he can feel Arthur right away. He is close, impossibly close, and it takes a moment before Merlin realizes that Arthur is in the cave and if he could move his arms, he could reach out and touch him.

"There's nothing here!" Arthur says, furious beyond anything.

"He's here somewhere." Morgana's voice is steady. She doesn't flinch away from Arthur when he stalks towards her.

"Can you feel him now?" Arthur asks. She pauses, frowns and shakes her head.

Merlin wants to shout or sob or _anything_ , but the stone is still as hard as ever. He gathers himself, wills himself not to panic, and reaches out. When he brushes against Arthur's mind, it's sudden, fast and utterly devastating.

Arthur falters and falls to his knees, hands scraping against the hard stone floor, sharp pebbles cutting into his palms. Morgana is yelling something, but Merlin can't hear her. Arthur is shuddering and gasping for air like he's suffocating. There's fire inside Merlin's mind. "Arthur," he thinks before he pulls away from him, both mind and body burning.

"Merlin," Arthur answers and Merlin can see how something falls off Arthur and then he's on his feet again, full of energy and movement. He turns around, facing the stone where Merlin is trapped, and puts his palms against the smooth surface.

His hands slide straight into the stone. He looks surprised, but doesn't hesitate. Then Merlin can feel something warm against his cheek, the sensation so unfamiliar that it cuts through him so sharply that it's almost painful. He feels Arthur's fingers tracing over his face and then he's moving and Arthur is pulling him out of the stone.

The dim light of the cave almost blinds him, but then he can only see Arthur. Merlin feels weak and confused as his senses come back to him and hit him so hard that they almost knock him unconscious. He falls towards Arthur, breathless and weary. Arthur's body feels impossibly warm against his when his arms wrap around Merlin so tightly it hurts. He feels Arthur's lips ghosting over his cheekbone as he whispers incomprehensible words against his skin.

"I'm back," Merlin mutters into Arthur's shoulder. He closes his eyes and clings to Arthur. He doesn't let go, not even after he falls asleep.

When he wakes up, he's back in Camelot and Arthur's arms are still around him.


End file.
